a slumbering giant

Rabindranath Tagore .. geetanjali:

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake

To wake a slumbering giant...
My country has not woken despite the prayers of this great man and so many more in from the ages past. If anything, from sleep, it is slipping into a comatose state.

Maybe it is the city I live in ... Bangalore ... but I doubt it is the entire country that is going in this direction.

Perhaps it is just the growth pains of a country where the age old tradition of living for values is being replaced for an urge to live for money .. and money only.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to earn money. The problem we face is that nobody wants to "earn" it. Easy money is the want of the day. How can i cheat the next guy and earn the extra buck ...

From the auto-wallah ... the physical incarnation of the biblical devil, to cops to the landlord, everyone wants money ... and "value for money" is just another phrase .. like "office of profit"?

Life is one big game of "deal ya no deal" and everyone wants to just win.

Every year, the budget gets announced and another 1000 plus crores gets allocated to roads .. where does all the money go? What is the point?

The incas .. no the mayans ... they used to plan their cities 400 years in advance. The most advanced countries in the world today probably paln about 20 to 50 years ahead. Our government on the other hand looks back in retrospect over what might have been a good thing to do while pocketing the money.

Forget all the big stuff ... every morning, I see people on my street cleaning their houses and putting a rangoli. Full of zeal and a desire to find a place in heaven (or US whichever is more convenient). The water drains from the porch to form puddles on the road ... the sweep of the broom ends at the virtual demarcation of property ... as long as my porch is clean, how does it matter if I have just swept it over to my neighbors?

Some politicians, who I am sure never have to work late in the office and take a two wheeler back home have decided to protect animals. Rabid dogs are therefore in vogue. Will this same politician who so vehemently protects the right of mad dogs, take care of the parents of the sole son who dies in a motorcycle crash coming home just because he is being chased by dogs?

Do gooders, bums all the same. When Pandora's box opened, all the evil came out ... but she initially left hope trapped inside. For the rest of the world, she opened it and finally hope came out to. Here, even to hope is to hope for too much!